Monday, July 31, 2023

And another day of brain fog, HS boys trending conservative, pushing 14-year old to serve alcohol, teacher salaries determined by importance of subject, booting 18-year olds from SSI, changing your race, and leprosy in FL comes to a close: 

“Like Hitler in 1930s Germany, Trump appeals to the most evil of human instincts: ‘Kill 'em! Every one of 'em! Kill 'em all! Kill 'em!’ — Trump supporter, on what should be done to Joe Biden, liberals, RINOs and globalists (code for Jews)” — Bill Madden (Yes, there’s video.)

Brain fog and other long COVID symptoms are the focus of new small treatment studies. The National Institutes of Health is beginning a handful of studies to test possible treatments for long COVID, an anxiously awaited step in U.S. efforts against the mysterious condition that afflicts millions.

High school boys are trending conservative. But the numbers do say this: Twelfth-grade boys are nearly twice as likely to identify as conservative versus liberal, according to a respected federal survey of American youth. In annual surveys over the last three years, roughly one-quarter of high school seniors self-identified as conservative or “very conservative” on the Monitoring the Future survey, a scholarly endeavor that dates to the 1970s. Only 13 percent of boys identified as liberal or very liberal in those years.

‘I can’t believe we’re having this conversation’: the states pushing for 14-year-olds to serve alcohol. Wisconsin is just one of a growing number of states where predominantly Republican lawmakers are making quiet moves to roll back the alcohol service age, so that kids who can’t legally buy alcohol – or in Wisconsin’s case, even drive a car – would be allowed to serve hard drinks to customers at bars and restaurants. In addition to alleviating the labor shortage, lawmakers behind the bills argue letting kids serve alcohol would give them valuable work experience.

Twitter threatens legal action against nonprofit group that monitors hate speech. The Center for Countering Digital Hate accused X owner Elon Musk of making a "brazen attempt to silence honest criticism."

HISD teacher salaries will be determined by how 'important' the subject is. Under the Houston Independent School District New Education System salary table, teachers will be initially compensated based on subject matter and grade instead of experience. — This is horrible.

Booting 18-Year-Olds From Disability Rolls Has Lifelong Consequences. About 80,000 kids on SSI turn 18 each year, and, like Gabriel, about half will lose benefits. But the reason isn’t necessarily because their conditions improved; it’s often the result of the government applying a new adult definition. Kids qualify if they have trouble functioning in school, at home, or in their community, while people over 18 are judged only by their capacity to work. Federal regulations requiring “age-18 redetermination” seem reasonable: Disabilities affect children and families differently than adults, and reassessments can identify young people whose conditions have changed. But research shows the consequences can be dire…What they found was startling. Youth who lost benefits at 18 were twice as likely to be charged with a crime as they were to hold a job. Compared with those who stayed on SSI, they were 60 percent more likely to be incarcerated. Most were charged with income-generating crimes like theft, fraud, or prostitution. And they didn’t just commit crimes at a higher rate immediately after losing their checks but did so over the ensuing two decades. The study also found that increased spending on policing, adjudication, and incarceration nearly erased any government savings from reduced payouts; the added expenses far outstripped the savings when victims’ costs were included.

Many low-wage service jobs could be eliminated by AI within 7 years, report says. Low-wage jobs in the food industry and in customer service are among the positions most likely to be eliminated by generative AI by 2030…In fact, jobs that make under $38,000 a year are 14 times as likely to be eliminated by generative AI technology as other types of roles, according to Kweilin Ellingrud, director of the McKinsey Global Institute.

Inside the online world of people who think they can change their race. Practitioners of “race change to another,” or RCTA, purport to be able to manifest physical changes in their appearance and even their genetics to truly become a different race. They tune in to subliminal videos that claim can give them an “East Asian appearance” or “Korean DNA.”

‘Humiliating’: Mom, son with autism thrown out of NJ theater for using ladies’ room. It was supposed to be a fun trip to the movies for Gallinaro and her 15-year-old son, John. Gallinaro‘s husband wasn’t with them, so when John, who is nonverbal, had to go to the bathroom, she took him into the ladies’ room at Cinemark‘s Hazlet 12. There was no family restroom. Gallinaro said no one in the ladies’ room complained. She said many understood that her son has special needs and needed an adult to help him. But the theater manager let her and her son know she disapproved.

Leprosy cases surging in Central Florida: CDC. Authorities said that several cases in Central Florida have demonstrated no clear evidence of zoonotic exposure or traditionally known risk factors. They also noted that they have reported a case of lepromatous leprosy in the area in a male resident without risk factors for known transmission routes.

Airports, racing to hire workers, compete to look after their kids. The Pittsburgh facility comes as the airline industry continues its hiring push to meet resurgent travel demand in a still-tight labor market. At least three other U.S. airports are devising new child care plans of their own, joining the growing ranks of employers trying to expand access to a service that remains a costly barrier for many caregivers in their prime working years.

Fan files police report after Cardi B hurled microphone into crowd during Las Vegas show. The singer was performing "Bodak Yellow" at Drai's Beachclub on Saturday before a raucous crowd when a fan threw a large drink on stage, videos circulating on social media show. Cardi B appeared shocked for a moment then threw her microphone toward the fan. The microphone appeared to hit the fan and another woman and ricocheted into the air.

Angus Cloud, Actor on ‘Euphoria,’ Dies at 25. “Angus was open about his battle with mental health and we hope that his passing can be a reminder to others that they are not alone and should not fight this on their own in silence.”

RIP Paul Ruebens. He was 70.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.

Friday, July 28, 2023

And another day of more charges, DeSantis possibly pardoning Trump, Alito saying Congress lacks power, the warmest month on record, world oceans off-the-charts warm, climate tipping points, Covid, child labor, residual checks, and the Barbie movie being a litmus test comes to a close:

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” -- Albert Einstein

Donald Trump faces new charges in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. Here’s what to know. In an updated indictment handed down Thursday, prosecutors allege that Trump asked a staffer to delete camera footage at his Florida estate in an effort to obstruct the federal investigation into his possession of classified documents. The indictment includes new counts of obstruction and willful retention of national defense information. Prosecutors also added a third defendant to the case: Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira, who they say schemed with Trump and his valet, Walt Nauta, to conceal the footage from investigators. -- Lock him up, already.

Ron DeSantis suggests he would pardon Trump on any federal charges. The 2024 contender said he believes it won't be good for the country "to have an almost 80-year-old former president go to prison.” -- The Republican Party is the We Embrace Crime Party.

Justice Alito says Congress lacks the power to impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court. Justice Samuel Alito says Congress lacks the power to impose a code of ethics on the Supreme Court, making him the first member of the court to take a public stand against proposals in Congress to toughen ethics rules for justices in response to increased scrutiny of their activities beyond the bench. “I know this is a controversial view, but I’m willing to say it. No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period,” Alito said. -- Justice Alito sure acts like he’s untouchable.

July has been so blistering hot, scientists already calculate that it’s the warmest month on record. July has been so hot thus far that scientists calculate that this month will be the hottest globally on record and likely the warmest human civilization has seen, even though there are several days left to sweat through…They said Earth’s temperature has been temporarily passing over a key warming threshold: the internationally accepted goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit)…“Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” Guterres told reporters in a New York briefing. “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”

The world’s oceans are off-the-charts warm — and the worst could be yet to come. “We’re not even at the height of the summer,” said Svenja Ryan, a physical oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. “Typically, the ocean continues to warm until September, so I think certainly we can expect this heat wave to last into the fall.” This month, parts of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico were more than 5 degrees F warmer than normal. In recent days, a patch of the North Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada — a region normally kept relatively cool by the Labrador Current — was an astounding 9 degrees F warmer than usual...Scientists pay close attention to marine heat waves because the world’s oceans are crucial for the planet's ability to store heat. Studies have found that Earth’s oceans have absorbed about 90% of the heat trapped on the planet from greenhouse gas emissions since 1970. As climate change causes the world to warm, sea surface temperatures can offer clues about the health of these bodies of water. As such, the extent of the heat wave unfolding in the North Atlantic, its severity and its duration are all cause for alarm.

Signs show we're dangerously near some climate tipping points. We understand most changes as being gradual and linear (such as more heat waves as the average global temperature increases). In theory, those can be gradually reduced and even reversed if we cut and remove harmful emissions from the atmosphere. But tipping points are different. They can happen suddenly, like an on-off switch, pushing climate systems into a completely new state. And they're generally irreversible or difficult to reverse…The new study gives a stark climate example: England and France have milder winters than most of southern Canada despite being at a similar latitude. That's thanks to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, combined with the Gulf Stream. The AMOC is part of a global conveyor belt that circulates warm water from the tropics to colder regions and vice versa. Models predict an important climate tipping point will come when the AMOC shuts down or collapses, and stops circulating heat through the Atlantic. That's because it's powered by the sinking of dense salt water in the North Atlantic, and that process is getting swamped by the influx of lighter, freshwater from rapidly melting ice in Greenland…The study says the collapse will happen as early as 2025 and no later than 2095. That's far sooner than previous estimates that the tipping point is at roughly 4 C of warming. (So far, the Earth's surface has warmed about 1.1 to 1.3 C).

Your recent cold could be Covid-19, as the nation goes into a late summer wave. It’s time to stock up on tissues, bingeable TV options and Covid-19 tests. Yes, many signs are pointing to a Covid-19 summer surge – although one that’s far less intense than what emerged the past few summers. Experts say they do not expect that cases will be severe or that the uptick will be prolonged, and there are early signs from wastewater data that this wavelet may already be leveling out. But data posted this week by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that many Covid-19 indicators, including hospital admissions, emergency department visits and test positivity, are once again on the rise.

Child labor violations involving 388 minors at McDonald’s uncovered since May, feds say. Federal officials found more child labor violations at McDonald’s restaurants after recently announcing 305 minors — including two 10-year-olds — were working at franchise locations illegally…In Louisiana, McDonald’s franchisee CLB Investments LLC had 72 minors, ages 14 and 15, working longer and later than legally allowed, officials said. Additionally, three employees under 16 were tasked with a job deemed dangerous for young workers — operating a deep fryer — which is prohibited under federal law…In Texas…The employer allowed 10 minors, ages 14 and 15, to work long and late hours in violation of federal law and had seven additional young workers assigned to dangerous tasks — working a deep fryer, an oven and operating a trash compactor, according to the Labor Department…This includes how two 10-year-olds were found working without pay at a McDonald’s in Louisville, where they prepared and served meals, worked the drive-thru, the cash register, cleaned the store and sometimes worked as late as 2 a.m.

Teen was sexually abused at therapeutic boarding school, lawsuit says as parents advocate oversight. A teenager with special needs was repeatedly sexually assaulted by an employee at a small private boarding school in South Carolina, his parents said in a lawsuit as they advocate for more oversight of similar therapeutic facilities. The teen, who attended Whetstone Academy between October 2018 and January 2020, was “frequently sexually assaulted” and raped beginning when he was 14, the lawsuit said.

Trans men enter Miss Italy pageant in droves after trans women are told they can’t compete. More than 100 transgender men have entered the Miss Italy pageant this week, according to an activist leading a protest against recent comments by the pageant’s organizer, who said trans women wouldn’t be allowed to compete.

Striking actors are sharing their low residual checks on social media to make a point. When striking actors aren't on the picket lines, many of them are using social media to underscore how making it in Hollywood doesn’t necessarily result in big payouts.

Texas man has hands and toes amputated after contracting typhus from a flea bite. Typhus is an infectious disease caused by bacteria that can spread from flea, lice and chiggers. Symptoms typically include fever, chills and body aches. Flea-borne typhus in particular usually causes nausea, cough, stomach pain and a rash from the bite that arises around day five of the illness.

‘Barbie’ is becoming a new litmus test for dating men. Part of the shock, these women say, comes from the assumption that men who are willing to engage in supportive conversations about feminism are hard to come by...“It just was really moving for me, and it really made me sad to feel that I am doing everything that I can to really step into who I am as a woman,” she said. “And then I’m having to leave my partner behind, not because I want to, but because he just doesn’t have the bandwidth to follow me.”

Hackers are infecting Call of Duty players with a self-spreading malware. Hackers are infecting players of an old Call of Duty game with a worm that spreads automatically in online lobbies, according to two analyses of the malware.

A simple technique may help with nail-biting, skin picking and other body-focused repetitive behaviors, new research suggests. Compulsive nail-biting, skin-picking, hairpulling, and lip- and cheek-biting are among a range of body-focused repetitive behaviors, or BFRBs, that can become a source of distress, but new research may offer hope for relief.

RIP Randy Meisner. He was 77.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

And another day where “Nothing Compares 2 U” comes to a close:

"I’m proud to be a troublemaker.” — Sinead O’Connor

Ocean currents vital for distributing heat could collapse by midcentury, study says. A system of ocean currents that transports heat northward across the North Atlantic could collapse by mid-century, according to a new study, and scientists have said before that such a collapse could cause catastrophic sea-level rise and extreme weather across the globe.

Elon Musk's X takes @X handle from longtime Twitter user. The sudden takeover of the handle highlights the branding and intellectual property rights issues that Musk’s company now has to deal with.

Major automakers unite to build electric vehicle charging network they say will rival Tesla’s. Seven major automakers say they’re joining forces to build a North American electric vehicle charging network that would rival Tesla’s and nearly double the number of fast-charging plugs in the U.S. and Canada. General Motors, BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes and Stellantis said Wednesday that they will share in a multibillion-dollar investment to build “high power” charging stations with 30,000 plugs in urban areas and along travel corridors.

Whistleblower tells Congress the US is concealing ‘multi-decade’ program that captures UFOs. The U.S. is concealing a longstanding program that retrieves and reverse engineers unidentified flying objects, a former Air Force intelligence officer testified Wednesday to Congress. The Pentagon has denied his claims...Asked whether the U.S. government had information about extraterrestrial life, Grusch said the U.S. likely has been aware of “non-human” activity since the 1930s.

RIP Sinead O’Connor. She was 56.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

And another day of impeachment inquiries, blocking rules, ocean current collapse, climate change fingerprints, hot tub temps off FL coast, FL’s F on Black History homework, depression and dementia, X, and UAPs comes to a close:

“History teaches that autocrats who lose power and regain it are vengeful. If plagued by legal proceedings that threaten them, they are doubly intent on remaking government so that they are never haunted by investigations, impeachments or indictments again.” — Laurence Tribe

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy floats an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Speaking Monday on Fox News, McCarthy said the questions raised by House Republicans about the Biden family finances need to be investigated. So far, he acknowledged, the House’s probes have not proven any wrongdoing, but an impeachment inquiry “provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed.”...In his brief comments on Fox, McCarthy said the House needs to “get the rest of the knowledge” of what’s happening with the Biden family finances. -- Yet, they fought and fought against any investigation of their cult leader Trump. Republicans are not fighting for America. They are fighting to forever rule America.

Texas A&M suspended professor accused of criticizing Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in lecture. The professor, an expert on the opioids crisis, was placed on paid administrative leave and investigated, raising questions about the extent of political interference in higher education, particularly in health-related matters. — Free speech is ending in Texas.

Federal Judge Blocks Biden Administration’s Rule Restricting Asylum. The policy is similar to a Trump-era transit ban that was also blocked by the same Obama-appointed judge as unlawful...“The ruling is a victory, but each day the Biden administration prolongs the fight over its illegal ban, many people fleeing persecution and seeking safe harbor for their families are instead left in grave danger,” Katrina Eiland, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement. “The promise of America is to serve as a beacon of freedom and hope, and the administration can and should do better to fulfill this promise, rather than perpetuate cruel and ineffective policies that betray it.”

A crucial system of ocean currents is heading for a collapse that ‘would affect every person on the planet’. A vital system of ocean currents could collapse within a few decades if the world continues to pump out planet-heating pollution, scientists are warning – an event that would be catastrophic for global weather and “affect every person on the planet.” A new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature, found that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current – of which the Gulf Stream is a part – could collapse around the middle of the century, or even as early as 2025.

Climate change leaves fingerprints on July heat waves around the globe, study says. The fingerprints of climate change are all over the intense heat waves gripping the globe this month, a new study finds. Researchers say the deadly hot spells in the American Southwest and Southern Europe could not have happened without the continuing buildup of warming gases in the air.

Like a hot tub: Water temperatures off Florida soar over 100 degrees, stunning experts. On Monday, as much of the country stewed in bubbling heat, a boiling milestone was hit — a buoy in Florida registered a jaw-dropping 101.1 degrees Fahrenheit water temperature. This was on the heels of the same buoy in Manatee Bay registering 100.2 degrees on Sunday. For perspective, the average hot tub temperature is 100-102 degrees F. While the readings would've been considered a possible outlier or sensor error, surrounding buoys recorded similarly high temperatures, with 99.3 F at Murray Key and 98.4 F at Johnson Key.

The Creators of Florida’s Black History Standards Get an F on Their Homework. Florida education officials and the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, are facing a wave of criticism this week after the Florida Board of Education approved a new set of guidelines for teaching public school students about slavery in America. Among the guidelines is a provision implying that slavery benefitted some Black people because they learned skills while being enslaved.

Education Department opens investigation into Harvard’s legacy admissions. Top colleges’ preferential treatment of children of alumni, who are often white, has faced mounting scrutiny since the Supreme Court last month struck down the use of affirmative action as a tool to boost the presence of students of color.

JPMorgan ignored Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘nymphettes,’ U.S. Virgin Islands says. JPMorgan countered that the U.S. Virgin Islands was also to blame for allowing Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women and teenage girls, saying the territory used its powers to enable these crimes.

Everything to know about Elon Musk's 'everything app'. Twitter’s rebrand to “X” is more than a name change. Musk has trumpeted the move as the biggest step yet in the transformation of what was once a humble microblogging app into an “everything app.” He has shared snippets of his vision for this app dating back to his initial acquisition of the company, pointing to China’s WeChat app as something of an inspiration...Everything apps, as Musk likes to call them, are popular in Asia. In China, WeChat integrates instant messaging, social media and payment services all into one app. -- Because I want Elon Musk controlling literally everything about my digital life? Um, no thank you.

“Elon’s story is an inspiring reminder that as long as your dad owns an apartheid emerald mine, you too can become the biggest loser on earth.” -- Zack Bornstein

Court: Time For Florida to Stop Needlessly Institutionalizing Disabled Kids. A landmark ruling says DeSantis’ state is violating the rights of children with disabilities. Last Friday, the federal court for Florida’s Southern District issued a groundbreaking ruling: that the state had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by unnecessarily institutionalizing children with complex health needs, placing them in nursing homes instead of providing community health services. As an outcome of the ruling, which follows a two-week trial in May, Florida will have to develop plans to help children institutionalized due to lack of community resources return home.

A new study finds a strong link between depression and dementia. A diagnosis of depression in adulthood could more than double your risk of developing dementia in older age, according to a new study.

Hearing aids may slow mental decline in those at higher risk of dementia, study finds. Hearing loss has emerged as one of the likely risk factors for dementia for several reasons. As the brain struggles to hear, scientists suspect, it might have less capacity for cognitive work like thinking or remembering. The brain shrinks faster when it absorbs less sound.  Hearing loss can also lead to social isolation, leaving older folks less cognitively engaged.

These 8 habits could add up to 24 years to your life, study says. Want to live up to an additional 24 years? Just add eight healthy lifestyle choices to your life at age 40 and that could happen…Starting at age 50 instead? No problem, you could prolong your life by up to 21 years, the study found. Age 60? You’ll still gain nearly 18 years if you adopt all eight healthy habits.

Are we alone? House hearing seeks extraterrestrial explanations. Many members insist they have not seriously considered the question or are keeping their concern focused on national security risks from not knowing the cause of UFO sightings. But some members say they have seen enough to think that the unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) — a more recent term for sightings of strange objects or effects in the sky — are of nonhuman extraterrestrial origin. “It’s either something extraterrestrial, or something extraterrestrial that they reverse-engineered,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.).

How the search for UFOs went mainstream: A tale in 5 moves. But it has taken nearly two decades of sober, bipartisan legislative work to get to the point where the search for UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) is politically mainstream. From the mysterious videos that started it all, to the 2007 foundation of a secret UAP-hunting program, to the 2021 passage of a UAP whistleblower law, to the military’s own acknowledgment of hundreds of unexplained phenomena, here are five moves by lawmakers and government officials that helped take the hunt for UAP into the public square.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

And another day of being pessimistic about democracy, absurd lengths, heat and more heat, home insurance in FL, ACL injuries, AI-written articles, ‘superagers,’ addictive endless scrolling is bad for your health, and UFOs comes to a close:

“Don’t trust the person who has broken faith once.” — William Shakespeare

Americans are widely pessimistic about democracy in the United States, an AP-NORC poll finds. Majorities of adults say U.S. laws and policies do a poor job of representing what most Americans want on issues ranging from the economy and government spending to gun policy, immigration and abortion. The poll shows 53% say Congress is doing a bad job of upholding democratic values, compared with just 16% who say it’s doing a good job...Overall, about half the country — 49% — say democracy is not working well in the United States, compared with 10% who say it’s working very or extremely well and 40% only somewhat well. About half also say each of the political parties is doing a bad job of upholding democracy, including 47% who say that about Democrats and even more — 56% — about Republicans...About 6 in 10 Republicans and independents feel like the government is not representing people like them well, compared with about 4 in 10 Democrats...And views are even more negative when it comes to specific issues: About two-thirds of adults say policies on immigration, government spending, abortion policy and gun policy are not representative of most Americans’ views, and nearly that many say the same about the economy as well as gender identity and LGBTQ+ issues. More than half also say policies poorly reflect what Americans want on health care and the environment.

[Texas] State investigating claim that DPS troopers were told to push migrants back into the Rio Grande and deny them water. The Office of the Inspector General is investigating the claims, which include pushing small children and women with nursing babies back into the river and turning away a 4-year-old girl who later passed out on the riverbank from the heat. The trooper also reported that razor wire deployed by troopers has injured people — including a woman who had a miscarriage while entangled in the wire.

Missouri Republicans Are Going to Absurd Lengths to Stop Voters from Having Their Say on Abortion. The Missouri government’s tactics come as ballot initiatives have emerged as one of the most promising strategies to restore abortion rights. As a form of direct democracy, they offer a path to circumvent state legislatures captured by Republican gerrymandering. Nationwide, abortion access is very popular—especially since the Dobbs decision. Over the last year, 15 states have banned virtually all abortions, with devastating consequences for maternal health, not to mention pregnant people’s autonomy. Perhaps as a result, in each of the seven states that considered abortion-related ballot measures last year, voters came down on the pro-choice side. That includes conservative Kentucky and Kansas, where voters rejected bids to put no-right-to-abortion clauses in their state constitutions. Next year, voters in an additional eight states could see an abortion-rights measure on their ballot...Republicans in the Missouri legislature have been trying to make it harder to pass ballot initiatives since at least 2018, when voters successfully used the process to repeal a right-to-work law, raise the minimum wage, and limit gerrymandering...“Our state leadership is scared of the people,” Schwarz says. “The only way they can further try to exercise power and control over Missourians is by putting up these unfounded, unconstitutional attacks on the ballot process.”

6 large donors fuel Ken Paxton’s post-impeachment campaign fundraising. Paxton raised $1.7 million over the period, a figure he announced Monday, hailing it as a triumph despite the impeachment...His report shows that $1.2 million of the $1.7 million came from six supporters who gave at least $100,000 each. -- Two of the six gave him a total of $750,000. -- All are common GOP megadonors, and Dunn is especially supportive of the far right in Texas...The House impeached Paxton in late May, accusing him of a yearslong pattern of lawbreaking and misconduct. He was immediately suspended from office and now faces a trial, set to begin Sept. 5, in the Senate on whether to permanently remove him.

Spain’s early election could put the far right in power for the first time since Franco. Spain’s general election on Sunday could make the country the latest European Union member swing to the populist right, a shift that would represent a major upheaval after five years under a left-wing government.

Heat is torching records and spreading across the U.S. and Europe. These punishing heat waves, many persisting for long stretches of time, are expected to become a fixture of a warming world. Studies have shown that climate change is making extreme heat events more frequent, more intense and longer lasting.

Heat index in Persian Gulf on Sunday neared the upper threshold of what humans can endure. The Persian Gulf International Airport weather station in southern Iran registered a heat index value — the apparent “feels like” temperature to the human body — of 152 degrees Fahrenheit (about 67 degrees Celsius) on Sunday...Heat indexes of 160 degrees Fahrenheit are widely considered the upper threshold of what humans can endure for any more than a few hours. As heat index values climb to these thresholds, the human body feels strain and can lose its ability to cool itself down.

Phoenix scorches at 110 for 19th straight day, breaking big U.S. city records in global heat wave. As human-caused climate change and a newly formed El Nino are combining to shatter heat records worldwide, the Phoenix region stands apart among major metropolitan areas in the U.S. No other major city – defined as the 25 most populous in the United States – has had any stretch of 110-degree days or 90-degree nights longer than Phoenix.

Tourists and residents warned to stay inside as deadly heat hits Europe during peak travel season. Officials warned residents and tourists packing Mediterranean destinations on Tuesday to stay indoors during the hottest hours as the second heat wave in as many weeks hits the region and Greece, Spain and Switzerland battled wildfires.

House Republicans propose planting a trillion trees as they move away from climate change denial. The idea — simple yet massively ambitious — revealed recent Republican thinking on how to address climate change. The party is no longer denying that global warming exists, yet is searching for a response to sweltering summers, weather disasters and rising sea levels that doesn’t involve abandoning their enthusiastic support for American-produced energy from burning oil, coal and gas. -- Their decades of public denial and kowtowing to big oil, coal, and gas has fucked us.

Florida rocked by home insurance crisis: ‘I may have to sell up and move’. Climate change is threatening the very existence of some parts of Florida. And the costs are already being felt by Floridians. At the end of 2022, average annual property insurance premiums had already risen to more than $4,200 in Florida – three times the national average.

Women’s World Cup 2023: Some of the game’s top players are absent. And it’s because of the same injury issue. According to a study published in the peer-reviewed British Journal of Sports Medicine, females are three to six times more likely to experience an ACL injury compared with males. Another study published by the medical journal Arthroscopy estimates that women’s soccer and basketball players are three times more likely to tear their ACL than their male counterparts...Why are female soccer players at a higher risk than their male counterparts? A number of academics, players and soccer medical experts have identified a common theme: a lack of sufficient funding for the women’s game...According to Kryger, the key factors behind the disparity in rates of ACL tears between women and men in soccer are not only controllable, but also gendered...But, as Kryger argued, the professionalization of women’s soccer is relatively recent compared to the men’s game and there is far less funding for women’s academies...Kyrger said the lack of football shoes specifically designed for women has also contributed to ACL ruptures...Considering the huge wealth that global soccer boasts, and the exploding popularity of the women’s game, Milner said there was no excuse to not properly fund women’s clubs – whether that be the club’s medical facilities, academies or the quality of their training grounds and pitches.

You’re going to see more AI-written articles whether you like it or not. But it’s easy to see a future where publishers looking at replacing humans increasingly rely on this tech. Or, if you’d like a less dystopian projection, a future where publishers use robots to churn out low-cost, low-value stuff while human journalists are reserved for more interesting work.

Study finds more clues as to why ‘SuperAgers’ have better brains. The study is good news for people in their 30s and 40s who may want to improve their health by incorporating more exercise, stress reduction and other healthy habits, said Dr. Jo Robertson, national screening and trials coordinator for the Australian Dementia Network at the University of Melbourne, in an email. “The take-home point here for people in midlife is that they need to be enthusiastically modifying lifestyle factors known to have an impact — increasing physical fitness, reducing cardiovascular risk, optimizing mental health and getting appropriate care for any mood disorders — to improve their long-term brain health,” said Robertson, who also was not involved in the study.

How addictive, endless scrolling is bad for your mental health. Lembke explains that social media has taken the work out of how we connect with other human beings, placing that effort online and adding three major ingredients: novelty, accessibility and quantity, making scrolling a very potent drug…More than 95 percent of people ages 13 to 17 in the country say they use a social media platform, and more than a third say they are "almost constantly" using one.

Mammals may have hunted down dinosaurs for dinner, rare fossil suggests. An unusual find in China suggests some early mammals may have hunted dinosaur for dinner. The fossil shows a badgerlike creature chomping down on a small, beaked dinosaur, their skeletons intertwined. The find comes from a site known as “China’s Pompeii,” where mud and debris from long-ago volcanoes buried creatures in their tracks.

‘Non-human intelligence’: Schumer proposes stunning new UFO legislation. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), along with a bipartisan group of five other senators, introduced extraordinary legislation on July 13, suggesting that the U.S. government or private contractors may secretly possess recovered UFOs and “biological evidence of living or deceased non-human intelligence.” According to the legislation, “non-human intelligence” is defined as “any sentient intelligent non-human lifeform, regardless of nature or ultimate origin which may be presumed responsible for” UFOs...According to Schumer, “the sheer number and variety” of UFO-related claims “led some in Congress to believe that the [U.S. government] was concealing important information regarding UAPs over broad periods of time.” Moreover, as noted in the legislation, “credible evidence and testimony indicates that Federal Government [UFO] records exist that have not been declassified” as required by law. To that end, Schumer’s legislation establishes an independent nine-member agency to collect, review and declassify UAP records. If passed in its current form, the law would mandate that all government UFO documents “carry a presumption of immediate [public] disclosure.” The proposed legislation follows explosive allegations by a former intelligence official, David Grusch, that secret UFO retrieval and reverse-engineering programs were illegally hidden from Congress.

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Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.